Review Katy Brand's Big Ass Tour Live 
Lizzie Pillinger assesses the comic's performance at The Carriageworks theatre
Review: Katy Brand's Big Ass Tour Live
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Brash. Abrasive. Vulgar. Low-level comedy of the least intelligent variety targeted to the brain-dead of Britain. This was the impression I took with me to the half-empty venue. I was wrong.
Nonetheless, these things may be true of the characters which Ms Brand presents with a tireless energy for two hours. It speaks volumes that the couple sitting next to me did not return to their seats after the interval. Part of me doesn’t blame them. After singing her way in with ‘No Pants’, an anti-tribute to Lady Gaga, Katy brings out a character in no way resembling the Queen, other than a sash and the odd reference to “Philip the Greek”. These drag on. Mariah Carey, Duffy, Amy Winehouse, Supernanny Jo Frost, Charlotte Church. All very mundanely mickey-takeable, and Katy Brand does this as well as the next person with a bee in their sizeable barnet. Brand is no impressionist. Her goal seems simply to be to ridicule these celebrities, which she does with panache and absurd scripting. Take, for example, Kate Winslet announcing that “husbands are made of toffee and vinegar and held together with bits of string”. You won’t ever be able to take her seriously again. Box ticked.
However, the characters which got the greatest laughs – had the audience near enough rolling in the aisles, in fact – were her own inventions. The stoned nun who couldn’t keep a straight face, in an astonishingly clever move, taps into that hideous human instinct which forces laughter when you least should. Yet more amusing is Captain Rosie Fielding, the viciously feminist, butch soldier recruiting women to her blokeish, peeing-standing-up ways, who culminates her speech with a ludicrous rendition of Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’.
It is likely that these two hugely subversive, outrageous and crude characters were the reason Mr and Mrs Bailhalfwaythrough didn’t return. What they missed was Brand herself and her own intelligence and wit shining through. Yes, what I had seen of Ms Brand on TV was correct. Her characters are every bit as raw, cringeworthy and downright detestable as I expected. But as the show wore on I caught a glimpse of an incredibly versatile and imaginative comedian who is unafraid to push boundaries.
To give her time to switch costumes and characters, Katy stitches together her skits with films of her characters on a giant TV screen. Some of these videos are so convincing and cleverly woven into the show that you could believe that her Lilly Allen actually does go through a door on the stage and into the screen, or that a pre-recorded anchorwoman is responding live to Brand’s news reporter ad-libbing with the audience.
At the end of the day I can only admire a woman who can endure as much time with characters this hideous as she must have done to craft this smart piece of theatre.
Katy Brand performed at The Carriageworks in Leeds on 3 June
For details of upcoming shows visit www.carriageworkstheatre.org.uk
For other Katy Brand tour dates visit
Posted on Wednesday 9th June 2010
Lizzie Pillinger
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